After having exhaustively searched for the last few nights for information on this topic, I have not been able to find an answer.

I’m currently using the most up-to-date versions of both WP and bbPress. My current website uses Joomla, rokbridge, and phpbb3.

However, I’m trying to setup a new site based on WordPress and bbPress seems like an awesome alternative to having to mess around with forum bridges for phpbb3.

I was well on my way to adopting bbPress as our new forum software. Successfully imported the phpbb forum. Just fixing things up after the import like setting categories and moving forums around into their proper place. Then I realized that private forums were now public.

‘No problem’, I though. I went to each forum settings to be amazingly disappointed that there was only three options: hidden, private, and open.

With our current phpbb setup I can create a group. Add people to it. Then go to the forum (or their group) and give them permission to see the group.

This is especially important as we are a Christian gaming clan. We have a private guild forum that allows members of our clan to discuss things privately amongst each other (like private vent login info). We also have an officer forum that lets us candidly discuss potential applicants.

I would like to allow officers access to certain forums. Guild members to certain other forums. As far as I can tell, bbpress excludes this very basic ability.

I tried using the Members plugin for WordPress that is suppose to have bbpress integration. It wouldn’t work properly. At times it wouldn’t allow a role to see certain forums and other times it didn’t matter what permissions were set, it’d see it anyway.

I’m going to look at support for the Members mod, but it seems kind of silly that this wouldn’t be an integral part of a modern forum software.

Unless I’m missing something, I’ll have to stick with messing around with phpbb for now.

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

‘Sorry for my english. ‘ – do not apologise your English is excellent !

Ok, I have just re-tested and I do not get that issue – I can create pages and posts fine.

You could just try deleting and re-installing the plugin just to eliminate any load issues – unless you have just downloaded it, maybe download the latest version from my website so that we are both on version 1.4.

Then maybe we should try to eliminate plugin and theme conflicts

Plugins

Deactivate all but bbpress and see if this fixes. if it does, re-enable one at a time to see which is causing the error.

Themes

If plugins don’t pinpoint the problem, switch to a default theme such as twentytwelve, and see if this fixes.

Come back and let me know.

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

and another thought – have you been into settings to set up the groups? Dashboard>settings>private groups

It may be that I’ve not allowed for this – so if you have just downloaded the plugin and gone straight into setting up a page it might fail – I’d need to test, but please let me know.

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

a few non-active function of WampServer, probably.a few non-active function of WampServer, probably. But I can not know what is. I now send the online site, and let you know.

<hr />
=== Private groups ===
Contributors: Robin Wilson
Tags: forum, bbpress, bbp, private, groups
Requires at least: 3.0.1
Donate link: http://www.rewweb.co.uk/donate
Tested up to: 3.9
Stable tag: 1.4

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

You whrote:
and another thought – have you been into settings to set up the groups? Dashboard>settings>private groups

It may be that I’ve not allowed for this – so if you have just downloaded the plugin and gone straight into setting up a page it might fail – I’d need to test, but please let me know.

—————-

exact, I did not set the groups, now I proceed.

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

great – thank you – I will update the code to stop the error for future users !

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

another small error to fix
When in Forums Visibility Setting no check mark
General Setting and I do not put checkmark in the Activate

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

thanks, does this happen as you enter this page, or as you try to exit?

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

Other error (important) to correct

If in the fields as in the image I write random words, the plugin stops working and all the forums are visible for all

Clarification: I am glad of this plugin, this plugin seems to give me everything I was wondering, it looks really great.
I’m just putting it to the test to help the developer. Great plugin.

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

You write: thanks, does this happen as you enter this page, or as you try to exit?

just save the settings

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

Hey thanks for continuing to test – really appreciated it !

on the settings page – I can’t replicate this – I just tried a new install, and whatever combination of activate I use in the general settings, they still save ok. I am not sure what to suggest next – let me have a think.

For the random words, I’ll take a look later today and fix.

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

Many thanks!
You have solved a major bbPress option, an option that was missing!

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

Ok, so I cannot replicate either

Mine just saves correctly

or

‘If in the fields as in the image I write random words, the plugin stops working and all the forums are visible for all’

mine appends the random words to the current forum url, which then just send you to a 404 page

Can you confirm that you are still having both these issues?

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

I try tomorrow, but I think I will, this afternoon I tried 2 times and was equal

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

I confirm

insert

asdasdasd
and
asdasdasd

total forum visible and (plugin not found)

With wordpress 3.9 and bbPress 2.5.3-5249 on pc windows seven (wamp server)

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

ok thanks – I can only assume that this is related to how wamp deals with local urls, as I can neither see how the code could get to that stage, nor can I replicate on-line.

However leave it with me, and I’ll see if I can add some code that checks to see if it looks like a url.

If you leave these both blank, does it go to a login or 404 page as it should?

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

yuo write: If you leave these both blank, does it go to a login or 404 page as it should?

Yes 🙂

[@funin Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

Hey there! I didn’t try the plugin yet and it sounds wonderful.Before i install it I was looking for solution all over.

so I notice that users must to join to Group in order to comment in a Group that has Forum.

But when I created a public forum without group in the admin panel, everyone can use it. I really would like to take off the restrict of Group forums so even if someone not member of the group could still participate in the forum.

Anyone know any solutions ?

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

@funin

Not quite sure I understand

You can have multiple forums with multiple access levels

In combination with the default bbPress access a forum can be

totally public – everyone can see and contribute – even anonymous users can make posts
public – everyone can see, but only registered users can contribute
private – only logged in user can see the forum exists, and can either contribute as participants or just see as spectators
group visible – everyone can see that a forum exists, but only logged in users with permission for that forum can see forum topics and replies, and can either contribute as participants or just see as spectators.
Group invisible – only users with permission for the forum can see that they exist, and can either contribute as participants or just see as spectators.

Basically you have a great deal of flexibility on how you set your forum site up.

so if you want a forum that people can see and contribute to alongside ones that are either private or with just topics visible, then this is possible.

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

@pasquale-galasso

two more questions :

Does it work if you have a correct url in the boxes?
Can you try it with a default theme such as twentytwelve to rule out a theme issue

thanks

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

hello dear Robin, no I have not tried the correct url just end my day at work I try to do this. My theme is a pro thebusinessnews.

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

Hi Robin,

I tried with
http://localhost/ag/forums/ or /ag/forums/
and
http://localhost/ag/wp-login.php or http://localhost/ag/wp-login.php

the plugin not found and All forums become visible.

Probably problem inside my server localhost you do not spend too much time with this problem if others do not you report it.

This plugin is fantastic and gave me everything I wanted.

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

@pasquale-galasso – hey thanks.

Yes unless I get someone else with the issue, I leave it for the moment.

Do come back if you find other issues

[@vikr0001 Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

@robin-w, this plugin is greatly needed! I have to use the Groups plugin because it is required by WooCommerce for certain functions. Can you make your new plugin compatible with the Groups plugin?

[@robin-w Moderator 10 years, 7 months ago]

@vikr0001 – thanks for your comments.

There are many ‘group’ and ‘member’ plugins for wordpress out there, and whilst they share some common features, many work in totally different ways, and to make my plugin work with any/all of these could be very difficult.

Alongside this people use group and member plugins in different ways, so how you would like my plugin to work with groups may be different from how someone else would like to

I can usually however make it so that my plugin doesn’t conflict – ie not cause any issues and can be used alongside.

If my plugin is conflicting with ‘groups’ plugin, please let me know and I’ll take a look.

If you want me to look at any further at compatibility, can you summarise what you would like my plugin to do with the groups plugin that it currently doesn’t, and I may take a look to see how easy that would be to do.

Regards

Robin

[@pasquale-galasso Participant 10 years, 7 months ago]

@robin-w Your plugin is great, so great. I wonder if I will soon be inserted into the native code bbPress